-Caveat Lector- from: 'part two' of: <a href="http://www.sirius.com/~holy/mushroom2.html">MUSHROOMS and MANKIND</a> Ethno-Mycology 2, by James Arthur Mithraism, a forerunner to Christianity, source for many of the borrowed myths. [Image] Figure 33. Mithras, as a Lion-headed God Many of the ancient gods transcend their respective periods of local worship. Observing their attributes, such as having a miraculous virgin birth, divine manifestation, purpose etc., it is possible to conclude that a certain deity in one culture is the same deity in another. The icon may have a different name, but was most certainly a new incarnation of a previous god. Cultural adaptation of myth is the norm, not the exception. This brings up threads connecting gods from one period of time, to another. Also at any given time there could be several gods, all of whom had metamorphosed out of the same previous god. Such is the time of the inception of Christianity. When the new god Jesus had a rival in the personification of Mithra. A careful examination of these two gods, clearly reveals so many similarities, that in descriptive terms alone they must have been different adaptations of a previous deity. Mithra is the same mythic being as Sol Invictus (Roman), Ra (Egyptian), and Surya (Indian), all of which are sun gods. The similarities between Horus (Egypt), Mithra (Persia), Chrishna (India) and Jesus number in the hundreds. It can be argued that if you trace all of the gods back through time it may be possible to find the original. This original resides in the myths of the gods themselves, as those aspects that remain the same. "Take and eat, This is my body" is THE central theme. All of the ancient god myths contain some sort of a sacramental food, and anthropomorphically this food becomes, at some point, a personification of the god itself. [Image] Figure 34. Snakes and Stones This picture demonstrates the button (first) state, as well as the intermediary stages, of the mushroom's growth . Transforming out of the button/egg infantile state, the mushroom's appearance becomes more like that of a snake. Once the mushroom has fully grown, decayed, and dissolved it leaves behind a hole. This is due to it's pushing the Pine needles or earth outward, as it expands. Around the hole is a white powdery substance, actually the many spores it left behind. This hole resembles a snake's hole, or lair, which is another reasoning for the mushroom's being symbolized as a snake. Most certainly, the depiction of the snake, in the garden of eden, which revealed to humans secret knowledge that the fruit of the tree would make them as god, is a grand myth regarding this association. [Image] Figure 35. Born from a Stone The stone, small rock, and egg, are symbols for the mushroom in its button state. Snakes hatch from eggs, and as the mushroom pushes upward, out of the bulbous base, it is like a snake hatching, shedding its skin, and being born anew. Here we see that Mithra was born out of a stone, entwined with the serpent. This is purely symbolic, as no-one would be literally born out of a stone. Instead this reveales, the god is the mushroom, which in turn is the god. This is the symbolic form representing the birth into the spiritual realm, through the sacred meal and prescribed ceremonies, again, a god birthing scenario showing the god and the mushroom are one. [Image] Figure 36. The Temples of Mithra Mithra initiates would partake of a Sacred Meal in their ceremonies, invoking The Out Of Body experience. An ritually designed sacramental, Shamanic, and communal GNOSIS. The Mithraic temples of worship, known as Mithraeum, are designed like few other temples on earth. Typically inside the place of worship would be rows of bathtubs (TUBS) along the two side walls, or lined in two parallel rows from the rear wall to the front of the main room. Providing places where many initiates could lie down during ceremonies. The TUBS were tools in the mechanics of producing a communal experience. The purpose being, the joining together of the minds of the participants with the universal mind. The next phase being, to exit the planet (physical realm) in a spiritual flight to the heavens (stars). This is a bold expectation to perceive, let alone one you can convince someone they have had, especially if after the ceremony they have not. Filled with salt water these TUBS would become instant sensory-deprivation-tanks. Much like those depicted in the movie "Altered States". A group of scientist's Amanita muscaria experimentation tale. In this movie the experiencer digresses into a primordial state of existence. The plot is clear that this consciousness was exactly what the scientist was expecting to find. The quest is all important in this viewpoint, as the answers can only be given to the questions that are asked. The ancients had a strangely discomforting experience, upon viewing a human body, at death, being consumed by worms (maggots). Their fascination, with the process, was symbolized within many religious pantheon. The worm is associated as the snake, as an easily recognizable serpent, of some kind. The mushrooms go through the same disintegration process, as they expire they fill with worms and dissolve. Crocodiles were also mythologized, as another recognizable cohort in their pantheon of animals. Dragons too, are a product of this elaborated genera. This may very well be the reason for embalming bodies in Egypt, and elsewhere. An attempt to prevent the disintegration of the body, and the resultant putrefication by the worms. If there is something to mummification's preventing the body from being eaten by the worms, it might be, if you preserve the body, maybe you really preserve the soul. At least your DNA might withstand millennia of time, waiting for science to be able to reincarnate any person in the world that they had DNA samples from. But could they have been thinking about this back then? To preserve or putrefy, an option afforded to the wealthy, may be a choice reflecting a primitive knowledge of this possibility. Today there are companies which will freeze your brain, or even your whole body, with a similar purpose in mind. I like the idea of worms eating my flesh when I'm dead. I like thinking that the worms then carry my DNA within them, as they metamorphose into flies or gnats and spread my genetic material across the planet, distributing it, eventually, back into the earth. Then again, if somehow, preservation is necessary for the science of the future to ressurrect my long dead self, I wonder what all of this theology stuff is really all about. Just food for thought... [Image] Figure 37. The Stargate Here is an incredible artifact, one that is know as the "Mithraic Stargate". If anyone happened to see the movie "Stargate", note how this looks remarkably like the stargate in the movie, right down to the symbols around the circular gate. In this case, the symbols are Astrological signs. In the movie, they were replaced by anomalous, somewhat heiroglyphical, symbols, location points in the stars. The religion of Mithra centered around the initiate's ability to communally, astral-travel. Of course the out-of-body experience was fascilitated through the eating of the sacred meal. After consumption, the initiates could traverse the galaxies, witnessing, as the ancient Egyptians, first hand, the reality that the spirit of the human being is not restricted to the physical universe, or the physical body for that matter. This is the true revelation of the immortality of the soul, or at least the realization of such. This concept is so similar to the Egyptian initiatory rites, that it is solid evidence some of the hidden traditions of the ancients did migrate into later incarnations of various religious orders. More To Come :o) Check back soon. : ~~~~~~ Back to Page 1 ~~~~~~ <http://www.sirius.com/~holy/mushroom.html> ~~~~~~ Go to Page 3 ~~~~~~ <http://www.sirius.com/~holy/mushroom3.html> ~~~~~~ Go to Page 4 ~~~~~~ <http://www.sirius.com/~holy/mushroom4.html> ~~~~~~ To the Recipe page ~~~~~~ <http://www.sirius.com/~holy/recipe.html> -- end page 2 -- In the midst of this endless variety of opinion, what man, or what body of men, has the right to say, in regard to any particular action, or course of action, "we have tried this experiment, and determined every question involved in it? We have determined it, not only for ourselves, but for all others? And, as to all those who are weaker than we, we will coerce them to act in obedience to our conclusions? We will suffer no further experiment or inquiry by any one, and, consequently, no further acquisition of knowledge by anybody?" Who are the men who have the right to say this? Certainly there are none such. The men who really do say it are either shameless impostors and tyrants, who would stop the progress of knowledge, and usurp absolute control over the minds and bodies of their fellow men; and are therefore to be resisted instantly, and to the last extent; or they are themselves too ignorant of their own weaknesses, and of their true relations to other men, to be entitled to any other consideration then sheer pity or contempt. We know, however, that there are such men as these in the world. Some of them attempt to exercise their power only within a small sphere, to wit, upon their children, their neighbors, their townsmen, and their countrymen. Others attempt to exercise it on a larger scale. For example, an old man at Rome, aided by a few subordinates, attempts to decide all questions of virtue and vice; that is, of truth or falsehood, especially in matters of religion. He claims to know and teach what religious ideas and practices are conducive, or fatal, to a man's happiness, not only in this world, but in that which is to come. He claims to be miraculously inspired for the performance of this work; thus virtually acknowledging, like a sensible man, that nothing short of miraculous inspiration would qualify him for it. This miraculous inspiration, however, has been ineffectual to enable him to settle more than a very few questions. The most important to which common mortals can attain, is an implicit belief in his (the pope's) infallibility! and, secondly, that the blackest vices of which they can be guilty are to believe and declare that he is only a man like the rest of them! It required some fifteen or eighteen hundred years to enable him to reach definite conclusions on these two vital points. Yet it would seem that the first of these must necessarily be preliminary to his settlement of any other questions; because, until his own infallibility is determined, he can authoritatively decide nothing else. He has, however, heretofore attempted or pretended to settle a few others. And he may, perhaps, attempt or pretend to settle a few more in the future, if he shall continue to find anybody to listen to him. But his success, thus far, certainly does not encourage the belief that he will be able to settle all questions of virtue and vice, even in his peculiar department of religion, in time to meet the necessities of mankind. He, or his successors, will undoubtedly be compelled, at no distant day, to acknowledge that he has undertaken a task to which all his miraculous inspiration was inadequate; and that, of necessity, each human being must be left to settle all questions of this kind for himself. And it is not unreasonable to expect that all other popes, in other and lesser spheres, will some time have cause to come to the same conclusion. No one, certainly, not claiming supernatural inspiration, should undertake a task to which obviously nothing less than such inspiration is adequate. And, clearly, no one should surrender his own judgement to the teachings of others, unless he be first convinced that these others have something more than ordinary human knowledge on this subject. If those persons, who fancy themselves gifted with both the power and the right to define and punish other men's vices, would but turn their thoughts inwardly, they would probably find that they have a great work to do at home; and that, when that shall have been completed, they will be little disposed to do more towards correcting the vices of others, than simply to give to others the results of their experience and observation. In this sphere their labors may possibly be useful; but, in the sphere of infallibility and coercion, they will probably, for well-known reasons, meet with even less success in the future than such men have met with in the past. -- Lysander Spooner, "Vices Are Not Crimes; A Vindication of Moral Liberty" (1875) <http://www.geocities.com/golwis/vices.html> -- Psychedelics often produce psychotic and even violent behaviour in those that have never used them". -- Timothy Leary <http://www.leary.com/mainline.html> DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion and informational exchange list. Proselyzting propagandic screeds are not allowed. Substance—not soapboxing! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory', with its many half-truths, misdirections and outright frauds is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. 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